So you say 
I'm too quiet 
Holding things 
Up in my head 
 
I say so much 
But you don't buy it 
I don't want to wake up 
Alone in my head 

Oh say that you'll never go now 
Don't go 
Don't go 

{Chorus}
I need a lot of you 
I want a lot of you 
I need a lot of you 
All of you 

I tend to think 
I'm getting nowhere 
I drag it out 
Whenever I can 

Someday 
I'll get back there 
And find the world
You dropped from your hand 

Oh but some things you'll never show now 
I know 
I know 

{Chorus}

Watch you coming up 
Out on top now
Watch you coming up 

"It seems we've fighting a losing battle from the start"

Those words had been haunting her for the past few days as she and Audion moved steadily North 
towards Seiyo.  After more than a few minutes of internal wrangling, she had finally decided 
to pursue  the Chosen of  Wind, to take up the burden Emily had abandoned not of her choice. 

Of the General who she left behind, she tried not to think on that. From what she remembered of Lyr, 
he would have wanted in this way. 

No comfort in that thought. 

Despite the animosity she had harbored for him in the past, the distrust she still had, 
Audion had proven an apt companion. He was mostly quiet, keeping to himself . Their few 
conversations had been all business.

The thought  that  their time could have been better made if he had ridden her in her Unicorn 
state was an embarrassment.  For one thing she was at best an awkward equine. . . . 
she may have had the soul of a Unicorn, but she had never had to deal with the body of one.

Moving, breathing, looking, everything done in her alternate form was achieved with the utmost 
care. It was learning to walk, recognize,  *be * all over again. And also, it was too weird 
to think about anyone riding her back and for another, she hadn't forgotten the effects of the last 
time he had touched her. 


It  seemed so long ago. The last few months were like a horrible surrealistic nightmare she had 
finally started to claw out of.  What person that looked like her had done those things, 
said those words? Was that person still there? 

Stana tossed her head uneasily. Disturbing thoughts but necessary. The Amulet's negative influence 
seemed to have broken against her as it had against all Unicorns, but Chaos was wakening. She could 
not hope that his rising would not cause an even greater shift than before. One she might not be 
able to stand off. 

Was there any GOOD news to comfort herself with?

Well, maybe not to comfort herself with, but there were certainly things to distract her attention with.  
She looked at her reflection in the stream they had stopped at, and saw her mirror image smiling back 
tentatively.   

"Hey stranger." She said quietly, "I haven't seen you in a while."

Her hand flicked uneasily over now red-Orange hair, with a single thin streak of pale green 
tickling her cheek.  That was going to be noticed, she thought with a slight downturn of the lips.  
It was the burning orange of  the setting sun, and just as unusual from what she had seen of Narada 
so far. 

She passed over that thought, looking for something more familiar, more like *her *.  The eyes were 
still the same hazel color, still thoughtful and somber, despite the still ghostly smile.  
Her fingers were still the same strong appendeges she remembered. Square tipped and slightly tapering.  
Fingernails clipped brutally shirt by her tendancy to gnaw on them when worried.  Freckles 
still dotted her nose, a few stray ones cavorting over to her cheekbones.

She was still there. 

Somewhat.

Her gaze kept straying to the locks of hair cascading over her shoulders and down her back. 
Her hair had gotten immensely long in the past few months. It was almost to her thighs.  She frowned 
thoughtfully, seeing her image do likewise, a crinkle forming on her forehead. 

She slipped the dagger from her belt sash and looked at it for a moment before bending back over to 
her reflection. 

When she returned back to the camp, Audion didn't 
comment on the shoulder length bob she had sawed herself